cot until the next eastbound train was ready to carry him to Cheyenne. From Cheyenne, he would catch the Denver Pacific Railroad line that ran 106 miles connecting Cheyenne with Denver. Yes, Longarm thought, once I get to Elko, things are going to get better quick.
Longarm climbed to his feet and stretched, hands reaching up to the crimson of sunrise. He yawned and went over to saddle his two freshest horses.
“You’re all going to get fed well tonight,” he promised them.
When the horses were saddled and the other pair were readied to follow, Longarm finished breaking camp and then he went over and jarred Oakley into wakefulness. The outlaw started, and then he relaxed and yawned. “We’re ready to ride,” Longarm said.
“What about that bank money I stuffed into one of them river cliff caves yonder?”
“I don’t believe it exists.”
“Four thousand dollars is a lot of money! It ought to be worth a few minutes of your precious time, Marshal Long.”
“All right,” Custis agreed. “But I’m tired of beating on your wooden head. If you try something again, I’m probably going to just shoot you in the gut and let you die slow.”
“You don’t scare me. You’re too damned honorable to just kill me outright. No, you’ll do your duty even if it gets you killed.”
Longarm untied the man’s hands and wrists that he’d bound to the tree. Oakley still wore handcuffs, and Longarm had his six-gun in his fist when he said, “Lead the way.”
Oakley’s legs had gone dead and it took him several minutes to unlimber them. Then he grinned and said, “I sure slept well last night, Marshal Long! How’d you sleep?”
“Fine,” Longarm lied. “Just fine.”
“No, you didn’t,” Oakley said. “You didn’t sleep a single damned wink and you look like death. Your eyes have big bags under them and-“
“Move!” Longarm ordered, stepping in behind the big outlaw and prodding him in the spine.
Oakley moved off alongside the river. The day was already warming up and the river looked cool and refreshing. In this place, it was narrow and surprisingly deep. Longarm could well see how its current was a lot stronger than it first appeared.
“Up this way,” Oakley said, angling up a steep path that led up the side of the sandstone cliffs. “Some folks claim that all these caves were made by the Paiutes that lived in this country. I always thought that they were made by birds.”
“Birds?”
“Sure,” Oakley explained, “for their nesting. Inside those caves, they’d have shelter and they’d have the water and the trees along the river. Either it was the birds or some muskrats.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Longarm said. “These caves are far too big for birds or muskrats.”
“Well, maybe the first trappers shot out all the really big ones and all we see left are the runts.”
“Shut up,” Longarm growled, finding the whole conversation ludicrous. “How much farther to this cave?”
“It’s one of them big ones near the top of this path. What’s the matter, tired already, Marshal?”
Longarm didn’t answer. He just kept climbing the little footpath until they reached a cave that was about four feet in diameter and went back far enough that you couldn’t see where it ended.
“This is the one,” Oakley announced. “There’s four thousand dollars piled up at the back wall. Go on in and you’ll find it all except for the little I kept and already spent.”
“Where’s the cut that you said marked this cave?”
“Musta washed away in a hard rain,” Oakley said, his back to the cliff. Then, he stepped a little aside. Why, here it is!”
“You just made that X.”
“No, I didn’t!” Oakley smiled and looked down at the water far below. “When I was a kid, I used to ride over here with my friends and dive off this cliff into that water. Had a hell of a good time.”
“No, you didn’t,” Longarm said. “You grew up in Oklahoma and you worked at odd jobs. You never had any friends.”
Oakley’s eyes tightened at the corners. “Are you going in to get that money, or not?”
“You go in,” Longarm said, not about to crawl into that cave and leave his prisoner unguarded.
“Me?”
“That’s right. Get the money and crawl back out.”
“What if I got in there and decided not to come out?” Oakley asked. “Would you have the balls to come in after me?”
“I think I’d just hike down and get that shotgun that Marshal Wheeler gave me. A couple barrels of shot would pretty well put an end to your foolishness.”
“Yeah,” Oakley said, looking impressed, “I guess it would at that. All right, I’ll go in and get the money. But our deal about the whiskey, good cigars, and food still stands. Right?”
“Right.”
“Fair enough,” Oakley said, stooping down and then entering the cave on his hands and knees as Longarm
